Rival boy bands One Direction and The Wanted have become embroiled in a Twitter row.

The feud resulted in an angered extended tweet from The Wanted’s Jay McGuiness who called One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson: “One of the most overrated, arrogant and not to mention insincere people around.”

“Your shocking lack of talent will only be forgiven by lots of humility and no-strings-attached friendship among your band. Louis, don’t measure your worth in followers or money, because they’re fickle, and when they go you might feel worthless,” he added.

The argument started after Louis tweeted The Wanted’s Tom Parker a link to an interview in which he admitted failing during an X Factor audition.

Refusing to keep quiet, Tom replied: “Yes, I don’t need to call producers to beg my way on to a track over my ‘friends’ #crybaby #loyalty #louisgottalent”

As the row continued on Twitter, One Direction’s Liam Payne also joined in, poking fun at the lack of followers The Wanted have and criticising Tom’s vocals.

Liam, who has 10 million followers compared to Tom’s 1 million, said: “Hey Tom, let’s talk about your singing and your amazing tone pierces my ears with every note…ps tweet out when you have someone to speak to. Our drummer has more followers than you.”

“Dear Louis Tomlinson, please stop mentioning us in your gigs, we certainly no longer mention you and it’s time to let dead dogs lie.

“Your passive-aggressive style of speaking makes me cringe, and I wish you’d either have the bollocks of some of your co-workers and speak truthfully, or the class of the majority of them to be silent,” he said.